Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Update

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 71,510,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the August 31st total of 67,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 9,480,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $4.41 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.60. Geron has a 1-year low of $1.64 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.62 billion, a PE ratio of -12.60 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.16.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10). Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The company had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.09) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Geron

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 870.0% in the 1st quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. American Trust acquired a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Geron by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.06.

About Geron

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis.